With E3 2016 just a week away, there are rumors that Microsoft will unveil a major new push to bring PC and Xbox gamers together. If that’s going to work, the company needs to make some significant changes.

Vulkan 1.0 is finally out, with Khronos’ first ever “hard release.” The new API will be supported by most of the industry, including Qualcomm, Imagination Technologies, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia. The most noteworthy holdout? Apple.

Alienware has announced that its Steam Machine — the Alienware Alpha — will be available in November for $550. Curiously, though, the Alpha — which should be the first commercially available Steam Machine — won’t ship with Valve’s purpose-built Steam Controller. The Alpha also won’t ship with SteamOS. In fact, the Alienware Alpha is basically just a mid-spec Windows 8.1 PC that boots straight into Steam Big Picture Mode. Considering Steam Machines were meant to usher in a new era of Linux-based living room game consoles, with a magical gamepad that makes PC games playable from your couch, what exactly is Alienware playing at?

Unreal has announced that Unreal Engine 4.1, due to be released in the next couple of weeks, will fully support SteamOS and Linux. Developers can take their games — whether they’re indie or triple-AAA titles — flip a switch, and voila: The game is packaged and ready to run on SteamOS and Linux. Suffice it to say, this could be a huge step towards making Linux a viable platform for gaming. Could 2014 finally be the year of desktop Linux (YODL)?